As someone whose career goal is to essentially help artists
connect with their fans and build a lasting career in the music industry, the
first question I had to ask myself is, “Where do we start?” I know many artists
who are doing independent demos, performing at any venue that will have them,
and attempting to market themselves through social media. These artists just
want to share their music, their creation, with the world. But in the world of
digital media, it’s hard to get noticed. Not everyone can be a YouTube
sensation like Justin
Bieber or Karmin and
suddenly get a record deal with a major label. That just doesn’t happen for the
majority of artists, despite how incredibly talented they may be. So I started
searching out in the world of cyberspace for established businesses that
focused specifically on artist development. One site I found actually listed a directory of several major artist
management firms. The site also offered a book written by Paul Allen called Artist Management for the Music Business. Many of these firms boast that they
will organize an artist’s career so that they can be successful. Instead of
shopping their music around to record labels for potential contracts, artists
can now partner with these artist managers to develop their entire career. It
would seem that in this day and age, with the flood of artists trying to get
noticed so that they can connect with their fans, it is absolutely essential to
have an artist manager. The artist manager role is one of a true partner with
the artist, putting their needs and interests above all else. My goal as an
artist manager is not just to make my artist commercially viable (after all, it
IS the money that we all want to make) but also to develop that artist as a
person. I don’t want to just manage…I want to COACH. Life coaching is my strong suit. It’s
what I bring to the table that sets me apart from other artist managers. It is
my feeling that any artist trying to make a lasting career for themselves needs
to not only be interested in the business aspect of their career, but personal
development as well. Without growing as a person, an artist will likely have
difficulty making the right choices for their career. It is this pairing of an
artist’s career management with their personal development that I hope will
make me an effective, sought-after artist manager and coach. Thus why I branded
myself as The HipHop Coach! Finally, after years of personal development on my
part, I finally know what I want to be when I grow up.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Artist Managing and Branding: The Need for .MUSIC
As I began this journey of thinking I wanted to be an artist
manager, I had no idea of all the aspects that I needed to learn about in order
to be the best manager/coach/promoter that I could be. So I started reaching
out to some people who I knew could point me in the right direction. One of the
resources I found was a great website that offers a book on artist management.
It is aptly called Artist Management Resource.
Did you know that there are 6 types of managers in the music business? They
include: The Music or Personal Manager, The Business Manager, The Road Manager,
The Tour Manager, The Production Manager, and The Technical Manager. These
roles are all described on the artistmanagementresource.com website, so for
more information, CLICK HERE. They also have great resources for sale, of which
I plan on purchasing as I begin my own career in this wonderful business of
artist management and artist development.
As a manager for any artist, one of the things I consider to
be most important is branding. In this day and age of digital music, it has
become critical for any artist to have an online presence. I recently read a
great article by Constantine Roussos that addresses the need for a .MUSIC domain name for the music industry. He
makes a very compelling argument that a .COM extension simply isn’t sufficient
enough for artist branding anymore. For today’s artists, having an Internet
presence is absolutely crucial, so Roussos makes a great case that a .MUSIC
extension is the perfect way for any artist in the music industry to accomplish
this goal. The hard truth is, no matter how talented an artist may be, if they
don’t have effective branding, they will have a very difficult time connecting
with the people they want to hear their music - their fans. One of the ways to accomplish
this branding effectively will be the use of the .MUSIC extension. This gives a
very clear message as to what an artist’s website is all about. Roussos gives a
great example that I will illustrate here: If I were an artist who wanted to be
found online, would it make more sense for my web address to be amydawn.com or
amydawn.music? Obviously, the amydawn.music tells the person searching me that
my website is about MUSIC without even clicking on the link. I fully support
this initiative, as I think it will provide a great resource for the branding
process of any artist. If you want to get behind the initiative as well,
CLICK HERE. I think this initiative will be an incredibly simple way to unite the music
industry and help all artists connect with their fans more effectively, as well
as help with copyright/trademark issues that are only getting more complicated
as the digital age progresses. After all, anything that helps get the music to
the masses is something that all of us in the music industry should support, right?
This issue is only one aspect that is covered on Roussos's website. I highly recommend Roussos's blog. It's full of great articles on the every aspect of the music industry from Artist/Band to Website Strategy and everything in between. If you visit there, be prepared to learn!
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